Prerequisites for a Cc/Cs-corrected ultrahigh-resolution TEM

After the introduction of a corrector to compensate for the spherical aberration of a TEM and the acceptance of this new instrumentation for high-resolution CTEM (conventional transmission electron microscope) and STEM (scanning transmission electron microscope) by the electron microscopy community, a demand for even higher resolution far below 1 (A) over circle has emerged. As a consequence several projects around the world have been launched to make these new instruments available and to further push the resolution limits down toward fractions of 1 (A) over circle. For this purpose the so-called TEAM (transmission electron aberration-corrected microscope) has been initiated and is currently under development. With the present paper we give a detailed assessment of the stability required for the base instrument and the electric stability, the manufacturing precision, and feasible semi-automatic alignment procedures for a novel C-c/C-s-corrector in order to achieve aberration-free imaging with an information limit of 0.5 (A) over circle at an acceleration voltage of 200kV according to the goals for the first TEAM instrument. This new aberration corrector, a so-called Achroplanat, in combination with a very stable high-resolution TEM leads to an imaging device with unprecedented resolving power and imaging properties. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.